Southern University, New Orleans (SUNO) has been ranked #1 in campus safety with a 98.2 safety rating among Louisiana colleges and universities by StateUniversity.com's Safest Schools report. SUNO was informed of its ranking on November 30.

SUNO's clean record reflects only reported incidents in burglary and larceny-theft according to the web site. As seen at http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank_by_state/safety_score_rank/LA.html. The Gentilly campus recorded .38 burglaries and 2.27 larceny-theft incidents per 1,000 students. Other categories considered were aggravated assault, arson, forcible rape, murder, robbery, and vehicle theft, none of which were reported by SUNO.

According to StateUniversity.com "colleges and universities ranked for campus safety on a scale that accounts for severity of a crime as well as frequency of crime." The site also lists SUNO #20 in the nation (http://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/safety_score_rank.html), the highest ranked Louisiana institution and the highest ranked HBCU in America.

"We are certainly honored to be recognized for something as important as campus safety. All over the country parents and prospective college students want to know that any college campus will provide a safe learning environment. This speaks volumes of the respect that our students and others in the SUNO community have for their peers and their campus," says Victor Ukpolo, chancellor of SUNO.

StateUniversity.com's founder, Dominik Mazur, states in the organization's release, "Student safety and campus crime are sometimes overlooked during the college evaluation process. We believe it is important for students to be aware of crime on campus and in the surrounding community."

StateUniversity.com is "the leading website for college information" according to its release on Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/StateUniversitycom-Announces-prnews-229214520.html?x=0&.v=1). The campus safety report is based on incidents reported by campus safety officials.